Happy Birthday Luke!!!
Luke 2: 9-14
Hi everybody!!!
Now you must be thinking, what does a passage that is telling the story of Christmas have to do with Luke’s 52nd birthday? Let’s look at verse 10 together:
"But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”
A little after I met Luke. Luke and I were sitting in a hot tub at my old apartment complex. Suddenly, in my head, I heard a voice that was clear and loud as day say: This is your future husband. Much like verse 10 in Luke 2, that message caused a great joy to me and to a lot of people. Especially my father, who, after he (father) died, I was told by more than one person how much my father loved to brag about Luke.
Luke and I have been together for 18 years, married for 13, coming August 10th. Luke and I have been through a lot on the roller coaster known as marriage. That is a theme throughout Luke’s life.
Luke was born July 23rd, 1974, in West Virginia to James Thompson. His entrance started with his big old head. While making his great appearance, the cord got wrapped around his neck. Luke had to be rushed to the hospital to complete his entrance. Praise the Lord, the doctors were able to get the cord off, and all 9 lbs of him came out. Folks, one moral of this story is, if you wanna give birth at home, please, please have medical supervision. Luke almost didn’t get to be here.
James, Luke’s father, was an art professor who originally wanted to live life as a French peasant. So when Luke was 2, the family moved to the French countryside. Luke’s father told me about having to bathe Luke in a metal bath basin. Luke’s intelligence started to show here. One day, when he was in a store, a woman came up to him and said (in French): Do you speak French, little boy? Luke didn’t feel like speaking French that day, so he simply answered: No. Fun fact: Luke’s very 1st word was owl. He still loves owls to this day.
In Luke’s childhood years, James got an opportunity to teach at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Luke grew up as a half English/American kid in 1970s Ireland. Unfortunately, Luke got a lot of garbage for being half English. While that experience would have destroyed others’ sense of kindness and goodness, that was not the case with Luke. Luke is a teddy bear with a gooey center. In Ireland, Luke published his very 1st piece. A poem called: I Hate Mustard. Jim forgot to send in the contact info to the publisher, so the local newspaper put out an article to find Luke. Jim went down to the paper and proved that Luke was his kid. Classic Jim. They published the piece and even made the title of his poem the title of the book. We still have a copy of the book.
It was around the age of 10 that Luke started to develop his love of cinema. For a while, Luke split his time between Ireland and the States. Jim would take Luke to NYC. They would walk to their local cinema, and Luke got to see all of the movies he wanted and some he was a little bit too young to appreciate at the time. Jim didn’t censor the movies he saw. Hence, Luke fell in love with Purple Rain. Luke looks back on this time of his life as a very important and cherished memory of his life. During this time, Ireland was censoring the movie The Life of Brian. Luke recalled items being secretly passed around so people could see the film. Luke had to learn about censorship at a young age. He shouldn’t have had to, but this was 1970s/1980s Ireland.
At age 14, Luke got the courage to move to the States and start high school in North Carolina. In this period of his life, he was a fish out of water but happier. With Luke having the blessing (and curse, but I am really trying to keep things positive here) of a European education, Luke went on to become valedictorian. His friend Jason told me his speech was legendary. Luke talked about two things: Batman and The Ultimate Warrior. Jim and Luke wrote a different speech to get it past the school, and then Luke just did his own thing. Hehe. Luke headed off to USC and got his degree in Film and Television. My father, John, would brag about this fact to everyone he met. Luke’s dad was upset that Luke turned down Yale. Everyone, please feel free to do the Picard facepalm at this moment. Luke only went to the literal best film school in the whole world. Geez.
Luke became a professional writer in 1999. He was told that this would be a very stable career.
While this career path is not the most stable of ones, man is he good at it or what? Luke did some side quests as well during the early years of his writing career. One of them was acting, which leads us to a little film called Ding Dong Dead. Luke’s leading role and the movie where we first met. That’s right folks, Luke killed me in a movie. We have on DVD, which is now out of print, the moment we met. I screamed; he stabbed me in the chest. Love. Fast forward a bit to the December after filming, and we officially started chatting. The rest is history.
Thinking back to that moment in the hot tub where God told me that Luke was going to be my husband. I am so glad I listened. If I didn’t listen to the Lord, I would have missed out on the sweetest, kindest, hardest-working, weird, lovable, smartest, loyal husband a girl could ask for. It is a pleasure to be married to Luke ( every couple has their things they fight about; not the point of this piece). Personally, I am always asking myself, how can I be better for Luke? Ephesians 5:33 says:
“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” (New International Version)
Make no mistake, a husband must be worthy of his wife’s respect. The passage is talking about the Love and Respect connection. Marriage is about mutual submission unto each other. Luke shows up for me every day, trying his best. He juggles multiple income streams for us. He is not afraid to care for me when my disabilities flare up. He is my leader. My guide. My best friend. He truly is my better half.
Happy 52nd birthday my love. I love you. You are the greatest.